Sloppy Joes, Slop, Sloppy Joes

What kid doesn't love sloppy joes? I was hoping that Asher would be as enthusiastic about them too.

Sloppy Joes
adapted from The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook

1 medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 medium green bell pepper, diced
1 1/2 lb ground beef
2 Tbsp cider vinegar
1 (6-oz) can tomato paste
1 cup water
1 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp salt
pepper

1. Cook onion, garlic, bell pepper, and ground beef in a large pan over medium-high heat using a wooden spoon to break up the meat. Cook about 5 minutes until meat is no longer pink.
2. Add the cider vinegar and stir a couple of times. Add the rest of the ingredients. Reduce heat to low and simmer, loosely covered, for about 30 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Serve over rice or allergen-free biscuits (for Asher) or on buns.

The final product: delicious! These are kid and adult friendly. The taste is familiar but also a bit more mature than your average sloppy joe. I might cut the mustard down just a little to please my mustard-hating husband but really it is fairly hidden in amongst the rest of the flavors. The sauce is tangy and complex and overall delicious. This is allergen-free but good enough to be anyone's favorite sloppy joe recipe.

Apple Pie

Apple pie. It's an American classic. There are a million different recipes so how does one know where to begin? Look at the recipe with the word "Best" in the title. (That actually rarely works but I tried this time anyway.)

Best Apple Pie
from Tasty Kitchen

3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
6 cups Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped
2 Tbsp butter
2 pie crusts
1 tsp cinnamon sugar
milk for brushing

1. Mix flour, sugars, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Add apples and mix well.
2. Line you pie pan with one crust. Add all of the covered apples to the pie pan. Pour the remaining dry mix over the apples.
   
3. Cut up butter and place around the top of the apples.
   
4. Cut vent holes in the remaining pie crust. Place crust over pie and seal the edges. Brush entire crust with milk and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
   
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 45-55 minutes until apples are soft.

With this much cinnamon-sugar and butter, the filling has to be good, right?
This was my very first double crust pie. I used Sylvia's Perfect Pie Crust. It actually went fairly well. I forgot to cut the vent holes until after putting the crust on the pie, but it didn't seem too difficult to do that afterward. I had one rouge apple puncture my crust but that also didn't seem that bad.
The finished product: pretty and delicious. The filling is what sets this pie apart. It's soooo good. It might actually be the best (it's definitely the best I've ever had). Try it.

Lime!!

I love lime. A lot. Especially since I was pregnant with Elias...I craved lime like crazy and it still makes me pretty happy. Enter Key lime pie.

Key Lime Pie
from Better Homes and Gardens

1 baked pie crust
3 eggs
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup lime juice or bottled Key lime juice
3 Tbsp water
few drops green food coloring (optional)
1 recipe whipped cream

1. Separate egg yolks from whites; set whites aside for meringue or another use.
2. For filling, in a medium bowl beat egg yolks with wire whisk or fork. Gradually whisk or stir in sweetened condensed milk; add lime juice, water and food coloring (if desired). Mix well (mixture will thicken).
3. Spoon thickened filling into pie shell. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour. Cover and chill pie for 3 to 4 hours. Meanwhile prepare whipped cream. Spread over chilled pie and serve.

The finished product: tangy and satisfying. I'm not a huge fan of meringue so I skipped that, but the result was still super delicious. Try it when you're looking for something tropical.

Strawberry Pie

Strawberry pie. It's so good and another one of Tyler's favorites. I've tried to make it at least a couple of times before. It didn't go well. Alright, it went horribly. I remember an undercooked crust filled with (and somewhat floating in) a runny mess of sweet, red goo. Bleck! This time I tried a Cooks Illustrated recipe and it went much better. I love their recipes because they make it almost fool proof. There might be a few extra steps along the way but those steps always avert a culinary catastrophe. I also tried a different pie crust recipe this time around. So let's get going!!

Pie Crust
from Tasty Kitchen

1/4 cup water
1/2 cup shortening (or butter)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 pinch salt

1. Add water and shortening to a small saucepan and heat just until shortening is melted. Set aside.
2. Put flour and salt into a 9-inch pie pan. With a fork, stir in the water/shortening mixture just until all the flour is moistened.
3. With your hands, form the dough into a fall and then pat into the bottom and up the sides of the pie plate. Finish the top edge and bake as desired.
   

I tried another pie crust recipe. I just wanted to check out my options. I also wanted to explore the world of butter pie crusts so I used the butter option instead of shortening. Since this is a prebaked crust, I tried a bunch of tricks to keep it from bubbling and generally turning into mess. All my tricks were found in the same edition of Cooks Illustrated as my filling. I put the shaped pie crust in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes to cool the butter and then stuck it in the freezer for about 10 minutes to set the pie crust's shape. I also tried the pie weights method (actually I used beans because I have a lot of dried beans). It involves lining your pie crust with some greased layers of foil, filling it with 2 cups of pie weights, and baking until 15 minutes before the end of your cook time. At that point you carefully remove you foil and weights and stick it back in to brown up to that pretty golden brown.
On the whole, the pie crust went well. I don't know if all the hoops I jumped through really helped but it made me feel better that I was trying. It also tasted really good. Butter in a crust is just awesome. I noticed that butter tastes better in a crust but shortening gives you that awesome flaky texture.
You might notice the strawberries included in the picture. They are strategically placed to cover up some minor holes. I remembered my last attempt to make strawberry pie where the filling escaped through some holes and partially filled the bottom of the pie pan. Sticky and gross! The strawberries actually did a good job filling the holes and preventing that issue. Yay!

Icebox Strawberry Pie
from Cook's Illustrated

Filling
2 lb frozen strawberries
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp unflavored gelatin
1 cup sugar
pinch salt
1 lb fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced thin
1 pie shell, baked and cooled

Topping
4 oz cream cheese, softened
3 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream

1. Cook frozen berries in large saucepan over medium-low heat until berries begin to release juice, about 3 minutes. Increase heat to medium high heat and cook, stirring frequently, until thick and jamlike, about 25 minutes (mixture should measure 2 cups).
2. Combine lemon juice, water and gelatin in small bowl. Let stand until gelatin is softened and mixture has thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir gelatin mixture, sugar and salt into cooked berry mixture and return to simmer, about 2 minutes. Transfer to bowl and cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.
3. Fold fresh berries into filling. Spread evenly in pie shell and refrigerate until set, about 4 hours.
4. With hand mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth, about 30 seconds. With mixer running, add cream and whip until stiff peaks form, about 2 minutes. Serve pie with whipped cream topping.

Notes about the process: cooking the strawberries is messy. I had splatters of strawberry goo all over my kitchen. I'm not sure what to do to prevent this next time around aside from very diligent stirring but even then I'm not sure it's avoidable. Be prepared for some post pie cleanup.
The fresh strawberries being mixed with the cooked berries. So yummy smelling. I'm certain I could have been happy eating this straight.
The finished product: so good!! The filling set up really well but wasn't too hard either. It was sweet and smooth and delicious. What really made the whole thing was the topping that went with it. The cream cheese whipped cream was incredible! Yay for conquering the beast!

Summer of the Pies

This summer I decided it was time to conquer my fear of pie crust. It has been my nemesis for quite some time. I'm not sure why but every time I've tried to make pie crust, it's resulted in either tears or expletives (or some combination of equally frustration-reliving actions). There have been multiple pie crusts that have just ended up in a ball in the trash.
We were giving Addilyn a lecture about the importance of practicing new skills (riding a bike) to learn how to do something better and it clicked. The only way I was ever going to conquer the pie was to practice...a lot. Since then, I have made 10 pies (counting the one I made today). Here is the first in my series.
The first pie crust recipe I tried was Sylvia's Perfect Pie Crust. It's got perfect in the name so that's got to be good, right?

Sylvia's Perfect Pie Crust
tastykitchen.com

1 1/2 cup Crisco
3 cups all purpose flour
1 whole egg
5 Tbsp cold water
1 Tbsp white vinegar
1 tsp salt

1. In a large bowl, with a pastry cutter, gradually work the Crisco into the flour for about 3 to 4 minutes until it resembles a coarse meal. In a small bowl, beat an egg with a fork and then pour it into the flour/shortening mixture. Add 5 Tbsp of cold water, 1 Tbsp of white vinegar, and 1 tsp of salt. Stir together gently until all of the ingredients are incorporated.
2. Separate the dough into thirds. Form 3 even sized balls of dough and place each dough into a large freezer bag. Using a rolling pin, slightly flatten each ball of dough (about 1/2 inch thick) to make rolling easier later. Seal the bags and place them in the freezer until you need them. (If you are using them immediately, freeze for 15 to 20 minutes to chill.)
3. When you are ready to use the dough to make a crust, remove from the freezer and allow to thaw for 15 minutes. On a floured surface roll the dough, starting at the center and working you way out. If the dough is sticking to the countertop use a metal spatula and carefully scrape it up and flip it over and continue rolling until it's about 1/2 inch larger in diameter than your pie pan.
4. With a spatula, lift the dough carefully form the surface of the counter into the pie pan. Gently press the dough against the corner of the pan. Go around the pie pan pinching and tucking the dough to make a clean edge.

Makes 3 crusts.

The filling I chose for the first pie was inspired from a pie Tyler adored when we lived in Manhattan. He's been asking me to make it since we left but I could never find a recipe. This isn't exactly it but it works just as well.

Easy Peach Cream Pie
tastykitchen.com

1 1/2 lb fresh peaches, peeled and sliced (about 4 peaches)
1 unbaked pie shell
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour
dash salt
1 cup heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla

1. Place peaches in pie shell
2. Beat eggs slightly in a bowl; blend in sugar, flour and salt.
3. Stir in cream and vanilla; blend well. Pour over peaches.
4. Bake at 375 degrees for 40-50 minutes or until center shakes slightly when moved. Serve warm or for a firmer pie, chill before serving. Refrigerate any leftovers. (It also freezes well.)
   

As you can tell, my first attempt wasn't gorgeous. I didn't have the cute fluted-edge I would have liked but there wasn't any holes and that was the important part. It baked up really flaky which was nice. It's a really good texture and the extra frozen pie crusts are really nice to have around. As for the filling, it was really, really good. This filling was actually used for pie #1 and #4. It cuts nicer when it's cold but it tastes heavenly when warm. So good.
Two down, eight to go.

Chocolate Mousse

This is my first recipe from the Julia Child's cookbook that Tyler got me for my birthday. Yay!

Chocolate Mousse
adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking

4 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar (extra fine if available)
1 tsp vanilla
6 oz semisweet baking chocolate
4 Tb strong coffee
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
4 egg whites
pinch of salt
1 Tb granulated sugar

1. Beat egg yolks and sugar together until mixture is thick, pale yellow, and falls back upon itself forming a slowly dissolving ribbon. Beat in vanilla. Place the mixing bowl over a pan of not-quite-simmer water and continue beating for 3 to 4 minutes until mixture is foamy and too hot for your finger. Then beat over cold water for 3 to 4 minutes until the mixture is cool.
   
2. Melt chocolate with coffee over hot water. Remove from heat and beat in butter a bit at a time, to make a smooth cream. Beat the chocolate into the egg yolks and sugar.
   
3. Beat egg whites and salt until soft peak s are formed; sprinkle on the sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed. Stir one fourth of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture. Fold in the rest.
4. Pour into serving dish or individual dessert cups. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
   

Makes 6 to 8 servings.


The final product: chocolaty and delicious. This so good. It's creamy with just a hint of graininess (which if you don't like, could be fixed by using the extra fine or instant sugar); Tyler and I both love our chocolate dark and grainy so this is perfect. The chocolate is rich and intense. If you are susceptible to caffeine though, use decaf coffee or espresso. And definitely serve this with a healthy scoop of whipped cream. So good!!

Meals that I Like #2

While this is an Asher-friendly meal (that he likes), this is a meal that I daydream about. Therefore, it gets put in with my meals.

Chicken Marsala
from Cybele Pascal's The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook

1/3 cup oat flour
salt and pepper
1/3 cup olive oil
1 lb thin chicken breast cutlets
1/4 cup diced nitrite-free prosciutto(I just use bacon because I have bacon...lots of bacon)
8 oz sliced mushrooms
1 cup sweet Marsala

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees.
2. Put oat flour on plate and season with salt and pepper. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet until really hot. Meanwhile, dredge chicken in flour, shaking off any extra. Put in pan once really hot and cook until golden, a couple of minutes per side. Don't overcrowd the pan; you will probably have to cook in two batches. Transfer to a baking dish and keep warm in oven.
   
3. Add mushrooms and prosciutto (bacon) to pan. Reduce heat to medium and cook until mushrooms are softened and meat has crisped up a bit. Add Marsala to pan and deglaze by using a spatula to scrape up any bits that have stuck to the side, stirring to reconstitute them. Reduce liquid at a steady simmer, stirring frequently about 7 minutes until sauce has thickened. Add chicken back to pan and turn in sauce.

Serves 2-4.This is another picture from back in May but, like the cacciatore, it has become a regular in this house.
The final product: incredible! The chicken is good and relatively simple. It's the mushrooms and bacon that I adore beyond reason. They're sweet, rich and highly addictive. It can be served so many ways too. With potatoes, like I've shown, is good or you can use noodles or rice to sop up the extra sauce and be extra happy.